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Summary:

An interview of Judithe Hernandez conducted in Chicago, Ill., 1998 Mar. 28, by Jeffrey Rangel. Hernandez discusses her family background and encouragement to become professional; training at Otis Art Institute and admiration there for African-American teacher Charles White; the intellectual influence of Carlos Almaraz's father on her as well as him, artists in L.A. such as Magu and Patssi Valdez; working with Judy Baca on the Great Wall of Los Angeles project; description and characterization of members of Los Four and sexism in the work of some Chicano male artists; her disillusionment over the reception of Chicano art and her own work in particular, the fact that she was not included in the big Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors exhibition and catalogue; becoming an educator; and the debate with Shifra Goldman.

Judithe Hernandez (1948- ) is a painter and educator from Los Angeles, Calif. and Chicago, Ill. Hernández was a leading Latina artist in Los Angeles during the 1970s, an important decade in the development of the Chicano mural movement and Latino art in general. Hernández now teaches in Chicago, but during her time in Southern California she came to represent both Chicana and feminist viewpoints, and was an articulate spokesperson for those interests and the rights of individual artists to transcend political identity in their careers.

Provenance:

Donated 2001 by Jeffrey Rangel. From 1996-2000, Jeffrey Rangel was contracted by the AAA to conduct oral histories of Latino and Latina artists who worked in Los Angeles and were part Chicano art groups such as Los Four and Asco. This interview was conducted by Rangel independently for his own research. The interview was transcribed with funding from the Smithsonian Latino Initiative funds.